The Cold Road - blitz

Winter came very quickly in the cycle of 1371. It was so early that the frost had frozen the soil before the trees had shed half of their golden leaves. Naturally, the harvest suffered greatly that season.

Many regions of Mornea faced very poor yields and the early snows cut off many roads and limited the ability of villages to exchange goods with their neighbors.
The harsh weather and deprivation divided the people of Mornea into two groups: those living in the large cities and those living in small towns and villages.
No one is left unaffected and the Season of Orhöm is going to be a difficult one.

To face these challenges, many villages have sent negotiators to the biggest cities to beg, barter or buy the supplies that have become scare in the rural areas.
Since the abrupt end of autumn, the cities have become vast markets where some products are sold at incredibly high prices. Normally common goods like wheat have become as expensive as alchemical stones, and many negotiators will not hesitate to trade the fabled stones for the wheat to feed their villages.
Of course, with this amount of commerce and the inflated prices, travelling to and from the markets has become… risky.
Which in turn has led to an increase in another business: many caravan masters seek armed guards to accompany them, at a reasonable price of course.

The winter will be hard on Mornea this cycle, as will the skirmishes.

For reasons of your own, your group has decided to escort a caravan. The road is long and the countryside hostile. After a few days travel, you began having serious difficulty making progress; the caravan was constantly becoming mired in the mix of snow and mud. So you decided to finish on foot, carrying as many of your commodities as you could.
Suddenly you notice another caravan, suffering the same immobility as you had.
The commodities they carry would be more valuable than alchemical stones to the inhabitants of the village you are going to…
So you decide to take the caravan and goods of your new enemies.

Setting up the Battlefield

1) This scenario is intended to be played on a 24”x24” table. Players determine their table side. Each deployment zone is divided (see diagram).

2) The players then place 2 carriages (2,5 inches by 3,5 inches - size 3) in their zone. Each carriage must be 5 inches from the median line and at 7 inches from the table borders (see diagram).

3) The players must then place 6 scenery elements (recommendation about the size of a playing card) according to the following rules:
- Scenery elements cannot be placed less than 3 inches from any table edge, objective or other scenery element.
- The players alternate placing the scenery elements. Randomly determine which player places the first scenery element.

4) The players then place 3 Alchemical Component markers with the following constraints:
- The markers must placed on a scenery element, at least 4 inches away from any other marker.
- The players place 1 of their markers in their table half, and 1 in their opponent's half. The players place the Alchemical Component markers alternately, one at a time, starting with the player who not place in first scenery element. The remaining marker can be placed in his own half table or opposing half table.
- All components MUST be placed on the table.

Deployment

The players must split their warband in two groups of about the same number of miniatures. Half to be deployed in contact with any of the carriage for deployment area but more than 5 inches from the midline. The other half is to be deployed in the deployment area, to more than 9,5 inches from the midline. The players alternate deploying all the miniatures from one card at a time. The player with the most cards starts. If both players have the same number of cards, the loser of an opposed Mind roll deploys first.

Victory Conditions

1) The first player who scores 6 victory points win. If at any time, both players manage to get 6 or more victory points in the same round or one player has no living miniatures, the result is a draw. It is not possible your last miniature left the battlefield with goods if you don't score 6 victory points or more at the end of round.
2) Maximum number of VP to win: 12
3) During the End Phase after the second round, Victory points are accumulated as follows:
- 1 VP for a miniature that leaves the table with goods.
- 3 VP for a miniature that leaves the table with goods belonging to the opponent.

Special Rules

The carriages: These are size 3 scenery elements.

The goods:
A miniature in contact with a friendly or enemy carriage can grab goods for 1 AP.
A miniature can only carry one token's worth of goods at a time.
A miniature whose health status goes from wounded to critically wounded or who is killed immediately drops the goods. A token is placed in base contact by the player of the miniature to represent the goods that were carried.
Goods on the ground can be picked up for free at the end of an action by any miniature.

Fleeing with goods:
A miniature don't leave the table in first round. A miniature with goods can leave the table by any of the lateral borders (North and south on diagram).